FilOil: Lyceum Pirates outgun Mapua Cardinals in opening assignment

The Lyceum Pirates found their mark from distance with a scorching-hot three-point shooting performance, beating the Mapua Cardinals 92-83 on Monday, at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

The game was the first for the Lyceum Pirates who move into a tie for first place in Group B of the Fil Oil Flying V Preseason tournament.  The loss dropped Mapua to 0-2 after losing their opening assignment to FEU, 89-77, last Saturday.

The day belonged to the outside shooting of Lyceum, as the team made a total of 12 connections from three-point range, which is the highest for any team in the FilOil Flying V tourney since Adamson hit 15 three pointers to set the tournament record against San Sebastian on April 21, 2007.  

The game got off to a slow start as both teams found difficulty find the the bottom of the net in the early stages of the game. Lyceum failed to score from the field until 5:28 was left in the quarter, when Joseph Gabaani opened his account with a lay in with 5:28 left in the quarter.

The Pirates rookie would prove to be pivotal to the Lyceum inside-out attack, scoring 13 points in his FilOil Flying V debut.

However, it was Cardinal forward Josan Nimes who looked to be unstoppable, scoring 10 points in the opening quarter. His free throw gave the Cardinals a one-point lead, but Rohel Maconocido’s three-pointer with eight seconds left put Lyceum on top, 24-22, going into the second quarter.

Outside shooting highlighted Lyceum’s second quarter offense as Dexter Zamora and company combined to shoot a blistering 54 percent from three-point range. Zamora was explosive in the first half of play, scoring 14 points on a perfect 4-4 from the field. It was only the Cardinals ability to get to the line, making 21-of-33 free throws, that kept them within striking range, going into the half down six, 53-47.

Three pointers keyed in a 24-point quarter for the Pirates, as four different players scored from beyond the arc. Wilson Balthazar’s triple with eight seconds left in the third quarter, which gave Lyceum their biggest lead of the contest, 77-64.

The Cardinals managed to cut the lead to seven in the final frame with 3:18 remaining on Jospeh Eriobu’s put-back layup, but Zamora’s jump shot and subsequent free throws iced the games for the Pirates, and gave him his game-high total of 24 points.

Key to the Lyceum victory was limiting Mapua’s star big man Jessie Saitanan to 15 points on 3-10 shooting.

“It’s been a long time since Lyceum’s had a big man. This time we have a Gabayani, we have a Pamulaklakin, we have a Bulawan. They’re still rookies but they’re a big help for Lyceum because they can match up with the big men of other teams,” said assistant coach Glen Capacio. - AMD, GMA News


The scores:

LPU  92 - Zamora 24, Maconocido 14, Gabayani 13, Lacaste Santos 10, Soliman 9, Ko 8, Baltazar 8, Azores 2, Bluawan 2, Evangelista 2

MIT 83 - Nimes 24, Saitanan 15, Eriobu 13, Biteng 9, Estrella 8,  Gabo 5, Layug 4, Sevens 3, Serrano 2

Quarter scoring: 24-22, 53-47, 77-64, 92-83